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{{quote|'''Dr. Destiny:''' What's that ''stupid'' song going through your mind?!<br />
'''Batman:''' It's what's keeping you out, Johnny.|''[[Justice League (
In order to defeat [[Telepathy]], frequently all a character has to do is fill their mind with something useless. This can take several forms. Often mentally reciting [[Nursery Rhyme|nursery rhymes]] or acquiring an [[Ear Worm]] will do the trick. Sometimes characters use especially compelling fantasies; conversely, sometimes they deliberately force their thoughts to be as mundane as possible. An especially [[Badass]] and unscrupulous user can [[Invoked Trope|fill his mind]] with [[Mind Rape]] thoughts [[Dirty Mind Reading|in order to repel anyone trying to read it]]. In any case, the goal is to drive out whatever thoughts they don't want the telepath to know about.
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This trope often provides a way for [[Muggles]] and [[Badass Normal|Badass Normals]] to get the upper hand on characters with [[Psychic Powers]]. However, it's usually implied that keeping up an effective screen of [[Psychic Static]] requires a heroic level of mental discipline: otherwise, the telepathy wouldn't ever be useful in the first place.
One of the ways a character can give someone a [[Poke in
Occasionally, a psychic or a normal may need to evade a telepath using [[Psychic Radar]] to scan for the presence of sentient thought. Depending on the situation, the mundane thoughts trick may let them blend in amongst the minds the Radarpath expects to find. Sometimes they may have to employ more extreme methods such as [[Heroic Willpower|blanking their mind or thinking thoughts that make them seem like an animal mind.]]
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== Anime & Manga ==
* In ''[[
* [[Pokémon (
** This could be why Bug-type are super effective against Psychic-types; their brains are too small (or possibly [[Hive Mind|too dispersed]]) to read.
** In a similar vein, this is one theory why [[Dark Is Not Evil|Dark-types]] are flat-out immune to Psychic damage -- either their thoughts are just difficult to follow, or prolonged perusal is next to impossible without severe [[Squick|t]][[Mind Screw|r]][[Heroic BSOD|a]][[Mind Rape|u]][[Go Mad From the Revelation|ma]].
* ''[[
** Attempted (and failed) in one episode; the psychic in question even compliments the protagonist for having had the idea to do this in the first place, but then focuses harder and is able to pick out his real thoughts.
** In the previous episode, the hero pulls a variation by sending a large number of policemen after the psychic; since [[Power Incontinence|he can't shut off his power]], this is much more successful.
* Attempted with moderate success in ''[[
* At one point in the manga ''Ray'', the title character asks a telepath she's just saved to see if he can read her mentor's mind. He can't -- wherever he tries, the mentor switches his thoughts to a game of ''shiritori''.
* At one point in ''[[
* ''[[
* One episode of ''[[
* Similar to the ''Carpe Juguluum'' example below, being drunk allows humans to see through the illusory human forms of ''[[Wolf's Rain
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* In ''[[Stormwatch]]: Team Achilles'', the [[Mind Probe]] of [[Complete Monster]] Senator Sonny Terns eventually succeeds, but due to the senator's [[Mind Rape]] thoughts, the telepath is the one traumatized by the experience.
* [[Deadpool]]'s mind has been stated as being too chaotic to read. His rival/friend/[[Heterosexual Life Partners|heterosexual life partner]] Cable once burned off overcharged psychic powers by going into Deadpool's mind, because the effort would wear him out.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Thunderbolts]]'':
** Doc Samson is shown to keep all his gamma fueled rage locked up in his mind to unleash on psychics looking to get into his head.
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* Grant Morrison introduced the villain Prometheus during his run on ''[[Justice League of America]]''. Among his talents was the ability to introduce 'neural chaff' into the minds of his opponents, making it difficult for them to concentrate. This didn't work on Captain America during a brief encounter in Book 4 of JLA/Avengers. As Cap observed, "Try fighting the Wehrmacht. Teaches you focus."
* When [[Nextwave]] faced off against the ridiculous-looking but intensely powerful Forbush Man, he lifted his pot-helmet and sent all of them on a mental journey into their worst nightmares. All of them, that is, except one, who was just too air-headed for the power to work on.
* ''[[
** The psychics who have [[Brown Note|survived]] reading [[The Joker]]'s mind have reported various unsettling things, such as nonstop insane laughter, screaming, a labyrinth of funhouse mirrors, incredibly detailed descriptions of past murders, a vast battle between bat and clown faced demons, "a billion fiery locusts blotting out a dead black sun", and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|Three Stooges reruns]].
** It was revealed after the "Tower of Babel" arc that Batman developed his counter-measures against the League, and J'onn in particular, by actually burying his memory and restoring it with a series of mnemonic triggers when he wanted to work on his plans, and instructed the computer to track J'onn and "activate the burial key" should the martian come within 100 miles.
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== Comic Strips ==
* ''[[
** Wally is unconcerned when the company is taken over by mind-reading giants, because, "If they read [his] mind, they'll go blind".
** In another unrelated incident, Catbert reads a report on Wally done by a mind-controlling bot or something. Catbert indeed ''[[Brick Joke|goes blind.]]''
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* ''[[Nobody Dies (Fanfic)|Nobody Dies]]'' had Iruel trapping everyone in a virtual reality sim under his control. When he looked into Rei's hallucination, however, he witnessed Rei getting it on with [[Humongous Mecha|Unit 05]] while surrounded by their [[Spider Tank]] children.
{{quote| '''Iruel:''' [[Flat What|...What. The. Fuck.]]}}
* One ''[[
* Happy Flame Time's ''[[
* The protagonist of the ''[[
* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' fanfiction ''[http://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=42931 Night Terrors]'' (not to be confused with the episode) has the Doctor teach Rory how to "shoot" bad thoughts at beings who try to possess him as a defense mechanism.
* ''[[
* When [[X-Men (Comic Book)|Professor X]] tries to read {{spoiler|Lance's}} mind in [[I'm a Marvel And
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* ''[[
** In the original version, the protagonist is able to temporarily neutralize the creepy kids' telepathy by imagining a brick wall. [[Literal Metaphor|Literally]].
** In the 1995 remake, he thinks about the ocean very intensely to stop the psychic alien kids finding out about the explosives that he's rigged to destroy them.
* In ''[[Flash Gordon (
* Attempted and failed in the first ''[[
== Gamebooks ==
* Subverted in the ''[[
== Literature ==
* A ''[[
* The [[Villain Protagonist]] of ''The Demolished Man'' by Alfred Bester uses this technique to avoid being found out for the murder he committed. This may be the [[Ur Example]] (it's from 1953).
{{quote| ''"Tenser," said the tensor. "Tenser," said the tensor. "Tension, apprehension, and dissension have begun."''}}
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* In one of the ''[[The Dark Is Rising]]'' books, Will prevents a villain from reading his mind by thinking hard about his breakfast.
* There's a variant in the short story "It's a Good Life", by Jerome Bixby (as well as the ''[[Series/Twilight Zone|Twilight Zone]]'' episode based on it). They feature people constantly mumbling songs -- not in order to keep the omnipotent child from looking into their thoughts, but so they won't ''think'' of anything unbecoming.
* In [[Diane Duane]]'s ''[[Star Trek:
{{quote| '''Mirror Troi:''' I'll leave you to your thoughts; such as they are. Third-rate poets.<br />
'''Picard:''' ''(mildly)'' There is nothing third-rate about Villon. }}
* ''The [[Properly Paranoid|Worst Case Scenario]] Survival Handbook'' suggests you can protect yourself from aliens psychically trying to [[Mind Probe|enter your mind]] by concentrating on white, empty space.
* ''[[
** This is supposed to work on vampires' mind reading and control. ''[[Discworld
** Rincewind manages to keep the Elf Queeen from learning about his scheme to defeat the elves in ''The Science Of Discworld II'' until it's too late to stop it by obsessing over potatoes whenever she's in the area.
* [[Isaac Asimov]]
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* In ''[[Fingerprints]]'', a psychic with the ability to inflict [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]] and implant [[Fake Memories]] tries to hide a crime from a mindreader by implanting lots of "witnesses" with contradictory fake memories about the event.
* In ''The Redemption of Althalus'' by David and Leigh Eddings, it is possible to prevent mind-reading by counting in your head, and mixing up the numbers intentionally. The villain's designated mind-reader hates this. A lot. Taking this a step further, fractions are actively painful to the reader.
* "[[Squick]] you" combined with threat (not ''very'' plausible, but still [[Everything's Better
{{quote| ''Tanalasta quickly chased from her thoughts all memory of the vision itself, instead picturing Merula the Marvelous trussed naked on a spit and roasting over a slow fire. If the wizard was spying on her thoughts, she wanted him to know what awaited if he dared report any particular one to the royal magician.''}}
* In R. A. Salvatore's ''[[
* A variation in the ''[[
* In the ''[[
* In ''Angry Lead Skies'', Garrett verifies that the silver elves {{spoiler|(all right, the ''aliens'')}} are reading his mind by imagining an X-rated encounter between himself and one of them, then seeing her flinch in response.
* ''The Damned'' by [[Alan Dean Foster]] combines this with [[Humans Are Cthulhu]]: the Amplitur, the villainous aliens of the setting, can mind-control any sentient species except humans. We [[Brown Note|put them into comas]].
* In ''Donovan's Brain'' by Curt Siodmak (and the movies based on it), a character puts off the mental influence of the title [[Brain In
* The same rhyme is later used for a similar purpose in [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[IT]]''.
* In the ''[[Twilight (
* ''[[
** In the book ''Dead Beat'', Harry is under psychic assault by a necromancer named Corpestaker, who is trying to pry the location of a [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|book]] out of Harry's head. Our hero pictures a granite wall separating his mind from hers, which he infuses with his power like he was trained to do. This blocks Corpsetaker out... until she actually starts ''trying''. Then Harry's fighting a losing battle to keep his wall intact as the necromancer places it under an enormous, steady psychic pressure.
{{quote| "Delicious," Corpsetaker said, and her voice didn't sound strained at all. "After a century, they're still teaching the young ones the same tripe."}}
** {{spoiler|After tapping in to Hellfire to patch up his wall,}} Harry manages to escape for a minute or two -- until a Ghoul throws a shuriken into his leg, breaking his concentration. After Corpsetaker successfully gets into his mind, Harry stumbles in such a way that the shuriken twists in the wound, driving her ([[Body Surf|him?]]) out through pain feedback.
** In ''Ghost Story'', it turns out that the White Council has stepped up their defensive training, resulting in much more elaborate constructs and culminating in a full-on [[Battle in
* In C.S. Friedman's ''[[The Wilding]],'' the [[Informed Ability|supposedly]] badass and dangerous female psychic is handily defeated by the [[Anti-Hero]] imagining himself raping her repeatedly.
* In the ''[[Tunnels]]'' series, {{spoiler|Will's mother}} is able to resist the [[Mind Probe|Dark Light]] by reciting the litany, "I pray that I might not let those about me spoil my peace of mind". Unable to get anything out of her, the Styx turn the device up to the "[[Mind Rape]]" setting and destroy her consciousness instead.
* Some protagonists in Stephen King's, ''[[The Tommyknockers]]'' manage to avoid being read by the locals by reciting songs and nursery rhymes to "jam" their thoughts. Gard uses his old poetry as static at first, but it starts failing as the townsfolk become less human and more powerfully psychic. He resorts to abusing prescription pills that cloud his mind to keep them out. At the end, {{spoiler|when Bobbi forces him to try to overdose, and then failing that, shoots him, the pain and pills keep him from being affected, leading to his victory.}}
* Subverted in a Russian short story, where a "reader" is talking to a scientist. He mentions another young scientist who keeps trying to block him out by reciting complex physics formulas in his head. The reader simply says that, while he has no idea what all those symbols mean, he does have a pretty good idea about how the guy feels about a certain young female assistant.
* In Jack McDevitt's ''[[
* Mind-blocking is common among the Kindar in the [[Green-Sky Trilogy]]. It's used to prevent others from reading your thoughts and finding out you are having forbidden "troubled" or "unjoyful" feelings. A sign of the society's deterioration is the high amount of mind-blocking that goes on even between friends and family members. It's never said openly, but this is one of the reasons for the loss of once common psychic abilities.
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* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' does this repeatedly:
** In the episode "A Race Through Dark Places", a captured telepath tries to block Bester from reading him by reciting "Mary Had A Little Lamb". (Since everything ESP-related in ''Babylon 5'' comes from ''The Demolished Man'', this is unsurprising.)
** Later, an assassin tries to kill Garibaldi. When he's captured, Garibaldi gets Lyta to mind probe him. He resists by singing and doing math equations in his head, but since he's essentially taking on the [[Touched
** In addition, human telepaths are trained to do this to themselves since their powers don't have a convenient off-switch to ensure they don't accidentally read the minds of everyone in the room. Which of course they would never do deliberately.
** In another situation with Garibaldi, he and several other people are attempting to avoid a group of telepaths, and he tells them they're headed to a dock. Since they're frightened and panicked, the telepaths immediately pick up this thought and head then themselves, while Garibaldi instead takes them to another section without letting them know; being calm and collected, his own thoughts (And the real destination) are nearly impossible to pick out of the crowd of panicked people following him.
* ''[[
** An episode of ''[[Star Trek:
** The ''[[Star Trek:
** It's also worth noting that for whatever reason, Ferengi are completely unreadable to telepaths.
** An episode of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager
** A variation occured in an episode where Tuvok, Janeway, and a few others got themselves assimiliated by the Borg deliberately as part of a [[Plan]] (with precautions taken to keep them from being absorbed by [[Hive Mind|the Collective]]). Whenever Tuvok feels his individuality slipping, he recites details about his own life and experiences (particularly memories of his family).
* Jo does this to the Master in ''[[Doctor Who]]''.
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]''
** Mr. Bennet thinks in Japanese to throw off Mindreaders, specifically Matt.
** Angela is also able to stop mind readers, mostly through sheer strength of will, and told Matt to "Stay out of [her] head", mentally. However, if Matt tries hard enough, she will give in involuntarily and get a [[Psychic Nosebleed]].
** Matt also tried to read The Haitian's mind once. He got some ''literal'' [[Psychic Static]] and a [[Psychic Nosebleed]] for his troubles.
** This has also been done with [[Mega Manning|Peter]] and Matt. It seems to be a general rule in ''Heroes'' that trying to read another psychic results in some pretty painful feedback. However, this may just be because they both were trying to read each other's mind at the same time, kind of like putting a microphone next to a speaker.
* Played absolutely straight in an episode of ''[[
* In the ''[[
{{quote| '''Xander:''' What am I gonna do? I think about sex all the time! Sex! Help! 4 times 5 is thirty. 5 times 6 is 32. Naked girls. Naked women! Naked Buffy! Oh stop me!}}
* In ''[[True Blood]]'':
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** In the first season finale, Sookie is with Rene, {{spoiler|the killer}}. She keeps trying to read his mind, and he keeps reciting "Don't think, don't think, don't think...". He eventually slips up though {{spoiler|having a flashback of him killing Sookie's grandmother}}.
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic]]'' (1970's) episode "War of the Gods Part 2". Commander Adama needs to prevent Count Iblis from reading his mind and finding out where Apollo has gone. He plans to shield his mind by crowding it with other thoughts, a technique he learned at the Colonial Military Institute.
* In ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'' episode "Too Many Christmas Trees", Steed and Mrs. Peel come under psychic attack. Their defenses include "Green Grow the Rushes, O" and an obsession with socks.
* Daphne in ''[[No Ordinary Family]]'' tries to read Joshua's mind but ends up literally hearing only static. This freaks her out and makes her suspicious of him.
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[
** The Tyranid Hive-Fleets project the Shadow in the Warp, created by the psychic disturbance caused by the Hive Mind, cutting off interstellar communications (which are the duty of telepaths). The Shadow doesn't usually kill psykers directly, but rather causes them to go insane, ramble about hundreds of chittering voices coming from inside their heads and then kill themselves.
** Coincidentally, the dying screeches of Tyranid synapse creatures in ''[[
* In ''[[
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''
** Certain creatures have this as a natural ability. In the ''[[
** [[
** In 1st and 2nd Edition the psionic defense mode Mental Barrier "is a carefully built thought repetition wall which exposes only that small area."
** The 2nd Edition ''Complete Psionics Handbook'' allows a non-psionicist to resist the "Contact" devotion with a barrage of thoughts and emotions. This only cause a meager penalty on the psionicist's roll, however, and the resisting character cannot do anything else.
* The Ordo Dracul from ''[[Vampire: The
* It became common practice at ''Bradford by Night'', a LARP version of ''[[Vampire: The
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (
* The novelization of ''[[Halo (
* In ''[[
* It's mentioned occasionally in ''[[
*
** In the third "season" of ''[[The Adventures of Sam
** Girl Stinky scares Max out of her mind by thinking about shoe-shopping.
** Agent Superball regrets to inform Max that the contents of his mind are classified.
** Dr. Norrington.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures
** There is a line alluding to this in [http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_587.php one strip].
** There's also [http://www.missmab.com/Demo/Cubi02.php the page picture]; apparently, the best way to keep a Cubi out of your mind is to bore it away. Of course, Jyrras doesn't know that...
** Later Abel pulls one off to escape [http://www.missmab.com/Comics/Vol_670.php Dan].
* ''[[
** Sam shields his thoughts from a psychic vampire queen by picturing [http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=980930 Zoe dancing topless].
** In [http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/000104 another example], Dr. Schlock evades a vampire's mind-reading abilities through [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness|sheer vocabulary]]. Note that in this case, the vampire does actually see what Dr. Schlock is thinking; but cannot understand a word of it.
* ''[[
** [http://dizzy.pestermom.com/?p=thcomic99 Chess.]
** In ''Create.swf Adventures'', Yukari prefers Terry Riley's "[http://dizzy.pestermom.com/?p=csa01marisa0590 A Rainbow In Curved Air]. It should be noted that satori (the species) are immune to [[Ear Worm|Ear Worms]] in general.
** [[Inverted Trope|inverted]] when Utsuho, upon getting a [[Grand Theft Me]] from Yasora, [[Fighting From the Inside|fights from the inside]] by distracting her possessor with terrible rapping, the Song That Never Ends, talking about her [[Tastes Like Diabetes|love life]], and [[Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff|a warning about stairs.]]
* ''[[
== Web Original ==
* ''[[
** When rich kid Phase is getting powers testing, s/he tries this against powerful telepaths by concentrating on stock market analysis. It doesn't work all that well.
** In a much later story, Phase quits on the stocks and goes with a [[
** Eldritch, on the other hand, has turned her brain into a psychic ''minefield'', and makes anyone who attempts to intrude experience gunshot wounds and other injuries she suffered in the past.
* Rooster Teeth posits a humorous example of ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncePIYlE7Hc unintentional]'' psychic static.
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== Western Animation ==
* On ''[[Justice League (
{{quote| '''Batman:''' Whaddya say Johnny? Wanna go [[Good Old Fisticuffs|one-on-one]]? It'd give you something to ''brag'' about.}}
* In ''[[Young Justice (
* ''[[
* Inversion in an episode of ''[[
* Mentok tries to read the mind of washed-up motorcycle daredevil Ernie Devlin in an Episode of ''[[Harvey Birdman, Attorney
* ''[[The Simpsons (
** Subverted in the Halloween episode which features Bart having telepathy. Homer attempts to kill Bart but, instead of blocking Bart's abilities, Homer ''thinks about'' blocking his thoughts (and bashing his head in with a chair) but doing this before he ''actually does what he's thinking.'' Thus, broadcasting to Bart his intentions. Guaranteeing [[Failure Is the Only Option]].
** Another episode has "I know you can read ''my'' thoughts boy. [[wikipedia:Meow Mix#Jingles|Meow meow Meow meow Meow meow Meow meow Meow meow.]]"
* When an eavesdropping device gets turned up too high in an episode of ''[[
{{quote| '''Quagmire's Mind:''' Man, this itches. I wonder who gave it to me. Probably that skank who needed a ride to the gas station. Last time I do somebody a favor... Oh God, they must have heard me! Oh God, ''I'' can hear me! '''''Baaah ba DA da da ba ba ba da da BUM baaah da da DUM baaah da da--'''''}}
* Subverted in an episode of ''[[
{{quote| '''Boss:''' [[You Have Failed Me]].<br />
'''Mook:''' It wasn't our fault, we were outnumbered!<br />
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'''Mook:''' ''(thinking)'' Oh no. Must concentrate. Must not allow him to read my mind or else...<br />
'''Boss:''' So. Tell me about this ''one man.'' }}
* The ''[[Star Trek:
* Carl attempts this in ''[[The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
{{reflist}}
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